Fabric art at UM depicts Chile’s pain

ORONO – Children dreaming of peace. Women dancing alone because their male partners have disappeared or are dead. Empowerment and courage. Anguish. Justice. Hope. These are the themes of “Threads of Fragmented Lives: The Chilean Arpilleras, 1973-2003,” in the Hudson Museum at the Maine Center for the Arts, University of Maine. The exhibit is on display until June 7.

Arpilleras – a word that means “burlap” in Spanish – are fabric pictures, constructed with applique, embroidery and crochet techniques and made by Chilean women whose family members disappeared under the Pinochet regime in the 1970s.

The 20 pieces on display in the museum’s Bodwell area are from the personal collection of author and Wellesley College Spanish professor Marjorie Agosin, who brought arpilleras to the attention of the American public with her books, “Scraps of Life” and “Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love: The Arpillera Movement in Chile, 1974-1994.”

Agosin was recently a lecturer in UMaine’s Women’s History Celebration 2003 series, which continues until April 25.

In their sewing, Agosin explained, “the women spoke what words could not say.” She referred to the arpilleras as journals of the women’s inner history of life – blending memory with individual history, recording the injustice of living under political suppression and the terror and anguish of losing loved ones, and never knowing for sure what happened to them.

Arpilleras are stitched from scraps of cloth, measure approximately 12 inches by 18 inches when finished, and edged with double or treble crochet, which serves as a “frame” for the pieces. Stitches used include blanket, chain, running and herringbone. Prevailing motifs are the Andes Mountains and a question mark – the mark of the disappeared, representing lost loved ones.

Under Pinochet’s dictatorship, Agosin said, cloth became more powerful than weapons. The work was the means by which the women spoke out against the injustice and suffering that had been imposed on them, shattering the familiar world of family life.

The 200 or so women who made the arpilleras, Agosin said, no longer make them. They have grown older, many have died, and Chile now has a democratic form of government.

“Democracy,” Agosin said, “made them invisible.”

Arpilleras, folded into small squares, were often smuggled out of Chile during the Pinochet years. At the time, they sold for $15 or $20 apiece.

Arpilleras empowered women throughout the world, including El Salvador, Agosin said.

The exhibit also includes arpilleras made by the women of Carasque, El Salvador, courtesy of the Bangor organization PICA through its Arpillera Project. Carasque is Bangor’s sister city.

The Carasque arpilleras speak of deforestation, war, guerilla fighting, the bounty of the village, family life and the relationship that has been established between Bangor and Carasque.

They are characterized by three-dimensional, doll-like figures sewn onto the pieces. Carasque women stitch arpilleras as a way to share their stories in a medium that transcends language barriers and for economic reasons. The arpilleras they make are available for sale. For information about purchasing Carasque arpilleras, call PICA at 947-4203. To learn more about the Hudson Museum arpilleras exhibit, call the museum at 581-1901.